Renault Sport Formula 1 Team driver Nico Hulkenberg was pleased to finish pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona on a strong note on Friday, after a productive morning saw him complete 45 laps without any issues.

The German shared the days running with team-mate Jolyon Palmer who took over in the afternoon, and was one of just a handful of drivers that managed to go under the 1 minute 20 seconds marker during winter testing, with a lap time of 1:19.885 on that final morning.

Hulkenberg is now extremely optimistic ahead of the first round of the season, feeling the team have made some good steps forward with the car today, with Palmer also completing 43 laps without any failures, which was in stark contrast to the issue strewn previous outings for the Enstone based squad this week.

The 29-year-old says the car feels great, and is confident they will still have a bit more to give when they line up on the grid in Australia, in just over two weeks time.

“It was a productive final morning of the test for me with a lot of work completed. We answered some of the questions we had from the previous days and we made some more progress with the car, which is all you can want.

“We’ve tried a lot of set-ups over the course of the two tests; some were good and some were not so good, but the result is we know where to go with the car.

“It was good to get out there and have a few more performance orientated runs, but we know there’s a lot more to come.”